This invention relates to ornamental plastic articles and to a method of making these articles from plastic pellets.
Several methods of making plastic ornaments from pellets are known in the prior art. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,031, a method of producing ornamental sheets is described wherein plastic pellets are spread evenly but randomly on a tacky sheet, the pellets are heated to fuse them to each other and to the tacky sheet, and then the pellets and sheet are cooled. The final product is an ornamental plastic sheet incorporating the pellets and the tacky sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,642 discloses a method in which plastic pellets are randomly spread in a tray having removable inner partitions, the pellets are heated to congeal them, the partitions are removed, and the pellets are reheated. The product is a unitary sheet resembling stained glass panels.
A method similar to the above is utilized in home decoration kits which are sold commercially. The kits provide metallic frames of various designs. The frames are placed on a tray or cookie sheet and plastic pellets are distributed randomly in the open sections of the frame. The pellets are heated in an oven until they have melted to a smooth sheet and then removed from the oven. The frame forms part of the resulting decoration.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing plastic articles from plastic pellets wherein the plastic pellets are distributed according to a predetermined arrangement and not randomly.
It is a related object to provide a method of producing plastic articles from plastic pellets wherein the plastic pellets are distributed according to any pattern chosen by the user.
It is another object to provide a method of producing plastic articles from plastic pellets of various colors.
It is another object to provide a method of making plastic articles from plastic pellets wherein uniform layers of pellets can be placed atop one another.
It is a further object to provide a method of producing plastic articles in a variety of surface textures.
It is a still further object to provide a method of making plastic articles from plastic pellets which is safe, inexpensive, easy to use and which can readily be adapted for home use.
These and other objects are accomplished by means of the present invention.